You're all I Have Left
by Metal Flowers
Summary: Parallel Universe for the beginning of The Angel Experiment, where Angel is kidnapped. Angel realizes that Ari still has his sweet, child like side and Ari realizes that Angel is all he has left. Ari/Angel. One shot


"Let me go!" I screamed in the back of the van, my voice growing hoarse. I would tell Max where I was, but she seemed to have fainted. Ari was riding with me in the back. If he was seen driving, then Max would be able to find me right away. I wish he hadn't been so smart. I didn't like Ari. I hated him. I hated hated hated hated hated _hated_ him! Why'd he have to take me away from my family?

"Stop screaming!" Ari roared at me and banged on the side of the van. When he removed his fist, it left an imprint in the car. Scared, I stopped shrieking.

_I don't like hearing you cry._

That thought made me look at him in surprise, but he wasn't looking at me. He was looking out the side of the window. Ari's face didn't look like anything I remembered. He used to be cute with his spiky blond Mohawk and light blue eyes. Now he looked like he's aged ten years in the past five. I entered his mind cautiously, making sure to not let him know of my spying act. He was remembering something.

_Ari looked at baby wrapped in a light pink blanket. The baby was chubby and had a light blond fuzz on top of its head. It opened its mouth and let out a piercing wail._

"_Why is she crying?" Ari asked, his voice still having that childish quality. I'd bet that Ari was only maybe three._

"_She's hungry," Jeb, who was holding the baby, answered. He shifted the blanket so that Ari could see the edge of the baby's dove white wings, "You already know her brother, Gazzy."_

"_Why don't we feed her?" Ari asked. Stupid, I thought. We don't get fed that much. I'm probably starting to get used to the poor rations they give us._

"_She doesn't get fed until tomorrow." Jeb knelt down so that Ari and the baby were eye level. The baby started to cry heavily._

"_What does she eat? Birdfood?" Ari guessed, and I took offense to that. I was human!_

"_Hardly," Jeb chuckled, "She prefers milk, like what you drank when you were a baby."_

"_One second," Ari ran into the School kitchen and brought back a baby bottle filled with milk. I guess he was young enough to get the bottle without suspicion. He tucked the bottle inside the blanket, where it wouldn't be seen until too late._

"_That's awfully nice of you, Ari," Jeb said, the smile dropping off his face, "Why'd you do that?"_

"_You probably did it to Max," Ari scowled, then his face softened as he looked at the baby, "We should call her Angel."_

I blinked as I came back into the present. Ari had named me? He'd been kind enough to sneak me food? And this is what he gets for it…we get out and he gets turned into an Eraser.

"Maybe you're not all that bad," I whispered to myself. Ari gave me a disbelieving stare.

"I just kidnapped you," he spoke slowly, as if thinking that I was stupid.

"Never mind," I looked away but I could tell that he was still staring at me.

All of a sudden, Ari knew, "Holy crap! You're the mind reader, aren't you? That's so coo- I mean, stay out of my head, brat."

"You think I'm cool?" I asked in surprise, ignoring the other half of his statement. Why did Ari thinking that I was cool make me happy? I hated him.

"I-I mean, mind reading is cool. You aren't," Ari looked away and I felt that I just unearthed the little boy in him again, the part of him untouched by his jealousy and Eraser mutation?

"Stupid Eraser." I muttered, not meaning for him to hear it but he did anyway.

"Stupid Freak." He insulted me. It didn't work. People've been telling me that my whole life.

"You're more of a freak than I am!" I pointed out.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself!" I snapped. Sure, being inside his mind might have been sweet for a little bit, but now he was just feeling jealous and pitying himself. It was annoying. Oh no, his Dad likes to talk about Max every now and then. Oh no, he's a mutant, "Yeah, your dad might like Max, but at least you _have_ a Dad! We don't even know if we have parents! We could just be test tube babies."

"Having no parents is better than having bad ones!" Ari retorted sharply. Well, it's not like I would know! Besides, he's just taking what he had for granted.

"I bet you've never even met your mom!" I yelled at him. He was being a brat.

Ari got quiet, "No…I haven't. I hear that she was nice."

"Then don't insult her like that!" I burst out, wondering how we'd gotten to this conversation, "Just be grateful for what you have now."

"What do I have now?" he asked me in frustration and irritation, his baby blue eyes looking panicked and confused. He really didn't know.

I was quiet for awhile before answering, "I don't know."

"You're right," Ari sighed and stood up, having to bend a bit so that his head didn't hit the top of the van, "I guess I have nothing to lose. You do."

He transformed, claws growing out from his fingernails. Ari tore an opening in the side of the van and transformed back. He took me by the shoulders and pushed me to the newly made entrance.

"What're you doing?" I shrieked to him in surprise. Was he going to throw me out of the van? Was he really that nice? That kind? Deep down, I knew that he was.

"You have everything to lose; a good life, family, a home…I have none of that!" Ari cried out, sounding like a little kid again, "I'm getting you out of here, even if I get hurt because of it. Even if I get retired."

He was really going to go through with it, I realized. Without another thought, I stretched and kissed his cheek, which was prickly with stubble. This was like kissing someone who was my age and an adult at the same time, "See you later, Ari."

"Goodbye, Angel," Ari looked at me sideways, "I mean…see you later."

**That was a little alternate ending to the beginning of The Angel Experiment. Tell me what you think!**


End file.
